Erratum to: New approaches to countermeasures of the negative effects of micro-gravity in long-term space flights: [Acta Astronautica 59 (2006) 13–19]

Abstract The results of studies of influence of mechanostimulation of the soles’ support zones on the effects of micro-gravity in the motor system are presented. It was shown that mechanostimulation of the soles’ support zones in the regimen of slow and fast walking, every day during 7 days of dry immersion (DI), eliminates fully or suppresses considerably the effects of micro-gravity. Decrease of the force–velocity properties or atrophic changes in the leg extensors were not developed after exposure to simulated micro-gravity in the subjects who “walked” 20 min of each hour six times a day; the transverse stiffness was only slightly lowered and the amplitude of electromyographic activity at rest stayed unchanged. The level of orthostatic deficiency in this group was also lower than in the group without stimulation. These experimental results being in full agreement with previous studies point out to the leading role of the support deafferentation in gravitational deprivation of the tonic muscle system's activity and thus that adequate mechanostimulation of the soles’ support zones can be proposed as a countermeasure against the negative effects of weightlessness.